


What My True Love Gave to Me...

by getwiigywithit



Category: Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters (2016), holtzbert
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Fluff, Mall Santa - Freeform, happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8725780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/getwiigywithit/pseuds/getwiigywithit
Summary: A Holtzbert holiday story...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'd like to remind everyone that I am not a writer. This shit is hard! I spent 4 hours writing and completely scrapped what I wrote but then once I went to shower, this thing wrote itself in my head. I hope you all like it! If not, okay...
> 
>  
> 
> You can come yell at me on Twitter @getwiigywithit or follow me on Tumblr @get-wiigy-with-it. Byeeeeee!

Something's been bugging Holtzmann lately and it isn't the fact that the corner store ran out of Pringles...

Okay, maybe that was partly bugging her.

But no, what was really bugging her was a certain revelation made by her favorite physicist the other night. 

 

>>

 

The ladies had spent all of Saturday decorating the firehouse from top to bottom. After a day filled with tinsel, Christmas music and candy canes, the group decided to end the night with a Christmas movie. Two hours of bickering and browsing on Netflix later and the majority agreed on 'The Santa Clause'. Majority being Abby, Patty and Holtzmann because Erin had admitted that she'd never seen it.

That wasn't what was bugging the engineer though. It was the reason why Erin hadn't see 'The Santa Clause' that was bugging Holtzmann. 

"Erin, candy cane, how have you not seen The Santa Clause? It's a holiday classic!" Holtzmann asks, using her hands to emphasize her words.

"It's just that... I never really believed in Santa Claus..." Erin answers hesitantly under the hard stare of the blonde. Of course, her face also flushes when she realizes that Holtzmann has gifted her with a new pet name. Abby and Patty don't miss it and they snicker to themselves earning an eye roll from Erin.

"You don't believe in Santa?" She whispers in a childlike manner, as if saying those words out loud is forbidden.

"Holtzy baby, we're all adults here. I think we all know that Santa isn't real." Patty intervenes, this time earning an eye roll from Holtzmann.

"I know that, Pattycake! But she said never- you never believed in Santa?" Holtzmann asks, sounding disappointed. "But Erin, how?" 

"Well I did believe in him when I was really young but then the whole ghost thing happened. Once I started therapy, the therapist suggested that while they were squashing the whole 'ghost aren't real' thing, my parents may as well tell me the truth about Santa and the tooth fairy too."

"Not the tooth fairy?" Abby pipes up, getting a concerned look from Patty. Holtzmann sits there, shaking her head in disbelief. 

They play the movie but three of the four of them are asleep within the first half hour. Abby passed out on the carpet, Patty on the recliner and Erin on the couch with her head on Holtzmann's shoulder. The engineer gently running her fingers through the brunette locks. She craned her neck at an awkward angle to watch the other woman sleep peacefully and couldn't help the soft pout on her own face. Why anyone would make this beautiful, brilliant woman ever feel less than amazing, completely baffled her.

Holtzmann knew that Erin didn't have an easy time growing up. That when the physicist had been haunted by her neighbor's ghost and was forced into therapy, Erin's childhood was practically stripped away from her. She didn't know it was to this extent though and so Holtzmann set out a plan.

 

>>

 

Now here she was at her work bench, Pringle-less with a pencil in hand. Maybe she was revisiting the blueprints for that ghost catcher of hers. She was only kidding when she said it transported the ghosts to Michigan but after hearing Erin's story, she seriously considered the possibility of making that actually happen to give Erin's parents and anyone else who gave the physicist hell a taste of their own medicine.

But that wasn't Holtzmann's plan. Not yet at least. The engineer had something else up her sleeve. She was going to give Erin Gilbert a Christmas to remember.

 

>>

 

A few days later, the group found themselves at the local mall on the second (maybe arguably first) worst shopping day of the year- the day before Christmas Eve. Of course, none of them were happy about this. However the ghosts hadn't really seemed to care at all that the holidays were upon them. This being the only day they could get in any last minute gifts they couldn't get online. They split up and set off on their shopping.

Holtzmann mostly browsed the food court for free samples given that she had made most of the gifts she was giving. She did however step into one store to get a pretty essential part of her plan. After filling up on pretzel bites, chicken poppers and arguing with a Salad Shack employee about their overpriced lettuce- "It's just crunchy ass water"- she went in search of her favorite physicist, finding her in Macy's contemplating buying a snowflake blouse complete with a bow tie.

"I'm not sure Abby or Patty would wear that..." The blonde says, only then Erin notices her presence. 

"Yeah and how about you?" Erin chuckles.

"Well it's not really my style but if it came from you, I'd make an exception. I'll admit though, I won't make that bow tie look nearly as good as you would." She winks and smirks when she sees Erin's cheeks turn pink within a second.

"I was just looking. I finished my shopping!" Erin responds. She takes notice of the one bag Holtzmann is holding and raises her eyebrows in question. "That's all you got?" 

"Are you forgetting that I'm an engineer?" Holtzmann asks.

"Right! Well let's get going. We're suppose to meet Abby and Patty by the tree on the ground floor in ten minutes." Erin says, adjusting the bags on her arms to relieve some of the discomfort. Holtzmann notices and grabs some of them from her before holding her arm out, hoping for Erin to grab. She does.

"Lead the way, m'lady!" The engineer smiles.

 

>>

 

They make it downstairs, surprised that the crowd has shrunk significantly. When they get to the tree, Holtzmann notices a bright flash and a short line of children and her eyes light up.

"Erin! It's Santa!" She practically shouts, startling the physicist. "We have to go see him!"

"Holtz, what would we- two grown women- look like sitting on Santa's lap?" Erin asks.

"We'd look like two grown women sitting on Santa's lap. Lets go! Haven't you ever gotten your picture taken with Santa before your parents crushed your dreams and essentially mine too?" Erin takes a moment to think back before shaking her head.

"That's it! We are going!" She grabs the physicist's hand and they join the line of people waiting. Erin doesn't argue. She simply follows the blonde and hides a smile from the feeling of her hand in Holtzmann's.

When they get to the front of the line, the mall worker dressed as an elf gives them a judgmental look. Holtzmann gestures for Erin to sit on one side Santa's lap while she plops herself down on the other.

"Kris Kringle, Erin Gilbert. Erin Gilbert, Kris Kringle and I'm Holtzmann! Santa, Erin here is 100% on the Nice list so I do hope you keep that in mind this Christmas or else I may have to tamper with your sleigh. I kid. Me, I go back and forth. By day I'm nice, by night I'm Naughty." She winks at Erin who's face is as red as Santa's jacket. "I kid again. Maybe!" She smirks. "Lets get this picture done with now, shall we?"

When Abby and Patty reach the tree and see their friends on Santa's lap, they tease them about it the whole way back to the firehouse. Holtzmann ignoring them as she stares fondly at the picture in her hands.

 

>>

 

They spend the morning of Christmas Eve visiting the children at the nearest hospital, handing out plush ghost and mini proton packs. When they get back to the firehouse, they Skype Kevin who went to spend Christmas back home in Australia and watched him excitedly open the gifts they had sent him.

The rest of the day is spent with loud Christmas music, lots of laughs and a simple dinner they each contributed to making. Lots of laughter, toasts and egg nog later and they each set off to their rooms to sleep.

Erin sleeps peacefully for a few hours before she's woken up by a loud sound. Figuring that it's probably just Holtzmann working on something in the lab, she debates on going to check it out. The engineer being known for her 'poofs' though, Erin scurries out of bed and toward the lab. 

When she enters the lab and sees that it's empty, brief panic sets in that maybe the noise she had heard wasn't Holtzmann but instead, an intruder. Grabbing the metal pipe on the engineer's workbench, she sets down the stairs quietly. She isn't at all surprised that Abby or Patty haven't woken up. Both of them were incredibly heavy sleepers. Whatever this noise was, she'd have to figure it out and take care of it on her own.

She reaches the bottom of the stairs and goes into the living area when she spots a figure moving around in the darkness. Wasting no time, she screams and throws the metal pipe toward the figure causing the other person to scream and fall backward into the Christmas tree. Immediately she recognizes the scream and goes to turn on the light.

"Holtzmann!" She hisses, trying to calm her rapid heart beat.

"That's Ho-Ho-Holtzmann to you, sweet cheeks." The engineer quips, struggling to stand up. Erin goes over to help her up and together they pull the tree back in place.

Holtzmann takes a moment to collect herself and notices the pipe that Erin threw her way on the ground.

"Really Erin? You threw the pipe? If that's how you defend yourself, I'm going to have to get you Swiss Army knife to keep in your cute pajamas." She teases. 

"Holtz, what are you doing? And why on earth are you dressed as Santa Claus?" She asks, taking in the engineer's attire.

"Well I was in the middle of leaving presents under the tree but you attacked me." She says innocently.

"I did not attack you and that doesn't answer my question." Erin gives her a pointed look, earning a sigh from the engineer.

"Okay, when you said that you didn't believe in Santa, it bummed me out. Not that I believe in him now, I mean, maybe but I also kind of believe that Christmas was created by the government to distract people from the fact that aliens exist-" Erin opens her mouth to speak but Holtzmann cuts her off. 

"I'm not gonna elaborate on that right now. Anyway, its just- you're such an incredible person, Erin. The most incredible person I know and the world hasn't always made you feel that way. I can't imagine what Christmas must've been like after you found out that Santa wasn't real when you were still just a kid. So I wanted to do something special for you. I bought you a gift but I also made you a gift that I was planning to leave under the tree for you anonymously. You know... as if it were from Santa. But you kind of caught me in the act so... here." Holtzmann holds out a box perfectly wrapped for the physicist.

Erin unwraps the box and opens it carefully considering she doesn't know what it contains. When she reaches inside the box and pulls out the gift, tears cloud her vision. Inside the box is a hand crafted snow globe. In the center of the snow globe, is a small figure that she recognizes as herself standing on the roof of what looks like the firehouse. Holtzmann holds Erin's hands with her own and together they shake the globe. Expecting snow to come down, Erin can't help but smile and let her tears fall when instead of snow, tiny ghosts float around. She watches as the ghost, all cute and friendly looking, move around the snow globe and she lets out a wet, happy laugh.

When Erin looks up to meet Holtzmann's eyes, she sees the nervous expression on the engineer's face and quickly wraps her up in a hug. Holtzmann smiles and returns the hug immediately. Both of them pull away, missing the closeness.

"You did this for me?" Erin whispered. "Why?"

"You deserve the world, Erin Gilbert!" Holtzmann responds. "Merry Christmas, Ghost Girl!"

At that, Erin grabs the collar of the Santa jacket and crashes her lips against Holtzmann's. The engineer taken by surprise but kisses her back at once.

"Merry Christmas to me too!" Holtzmann adds, eyes wide in surprise and delight.

Their lips meet again and after a few moments, they pull away making sure to keep their foreheads together. 

"Merry Christmas, Holtzmann!" Erin smiles.

 

>>

 

When she wakes up that Christmas morning, she looks over at the snow globe and smiles again. Then she'll unwrap her second gift from Holtzmann (that lovely bow tie blouse she had her eye on) and she'll smile some more. Both gifts given to her with love... by her true love.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 1AM so any errors you find are just for decoration. I love Christmas and I love Holtzbert!


End file.
